microtitre

Microtitre refers to a miniaturized form of titration, a common laboratory method used to determine the concentration of a substance. In microtitration, significantly smaller volumes of reagents are used compared to traditional titration techniques. This is typically achieved using specialized equipment such as micropipettes, microplates, and microburettes. Microplates, often made of plastic, contain a series of small wells arranged in a grid, usually 96 wells. Each well can hold a tiny volume of sample or reagent, often in the range of microliters. This miniaturization offers several advantages, including reduced consumption of expensive or hazardous reagents, decreased waste generation, and the ability to perform many tests simultaneously, thereby increasing throughput. Microtitration is widely employed in various fields, including clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, environmental monitoring, and basic biological research. It is particularly useful for assays that require high sensitivity or when working with precious samples. The principle of titration remains the same: a titrant of known concentration is added to a sample until the reaction is complete, indicated by a detectable change, often a color change. The volume of titrant used is then used to calculate the concentration of the analyte in the sample.